How to Buy the Best Vegan Chocolate on the Market?

We all love chocolate and that’s no secret. It’s because of its enchanting, mouth-filling taste and incredible smell that makes us fall in love at first sight. But, chocolate can also be bad for our health because it’s high in carbs and contains a lot of additives. Due to containing a lot of sugar, it causes tooth decay and weight gain. Plus, being highly processed in order to become the conventional, milk chocolate we all know, it loses all of its health benefits of dark chocolate.

Well, in fact, not all chocolate is bad. There is a chocolate that isn’t highly-processed, doesn’t contain additives, and it’s natural, which means it contains all of its nutrients. It’s known as raw, vegan chocolate. Contrary to the common belief that every chocolate is bad, this one is healthy. What makes it healthy is that it comes in its natural form. Actually, it comes in a form that is very close to its natural since it’s not processed. And, since it doesn’t contain any additives, such as milk or artificial sweeteners, it’s super healthy and safe for consuming.

Due to its incredible health benefits, its nutritive value, and not containing any additives, vegan chocolate became very famous. As a result, a lot of people became interested in it, which increased its sales. That made many companies start producing vegan chocolate. And, although having a wide choice is good for consumers, it also makes choosing the best one a hard quest. Nonetheless, there are a number of things you should keep in mind when choosing your vegan chocolate, which will help you choose the best one. So, let’s have a look at them.

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Buy from a Trusted Manufacturer

As it is with every product you buy, you should always choose a product that is manufactured by a trusted company. In that way, you can ensure that the product you are buying, in this case, vegan chocolate, is safe and produced following safe methods. Moreover, it ensures that the contents written on the ingredients label, along with all nutritional value, are correct.

Buy Vegan Chocolate with a High Percentage of Cacao

When choosing vegan chocolate, you should always look for the one that contains between 55% and 85% of cacao. It’s because a high percentage means purer chocolate, thus fewer additives. It also means there are more flavonoids, which are actually the ingredient that equips chocolate with health benefits.

 

Check the Label

Of course, you should always check the ingredients, even if it says that it is vegan chocolate. This is because there are some vegan-labelled chocolates that (may) contain traces of milk or another dairy or milk-derived product, such as milk solids, milk fat, casein, or whey. Moreover, there are many manufacturers which use the same lines for producing dairy and dairy-free products. This means that the chocolate although it is vegan, it might contain an unnoticeable amount of milk. And always make sure there aren’t many additives nor too many ingredients because that increases the chance of containing fillers.

Check the Oil Used for Making the Chocolate

This is something most people aren’t aware of, so we wanted to point it out. The thing is that real vegan chocolate is made using the cacao butter. This is a solid fat that is produced by pressing cocoa beans during the manufacturing process. It has an incredible chocolate scent that is sweet and enchanting.

However, since the cacao butter is expensive for manufacturers, many of them replace it with other, cheaper oils, in order to save money. So, instead, they use butter oil or palm oil. And butter oil is definitely not vegan since butter is a dairy product. Palm oil, on the other, although it’s considered as vegan, as it comes from a plant, it isn’t. In order to be considered vegan, it has to be sustainable.

Consider the Price

As they say, “You get what you pay for” and buying vegan chocolate isn’t an exception. So, have in mind that the price denotes the quality of the chocolate and how vegan it is. This is because brands which have more expensive chocolates have higher production cost. Namely, if they use cacao butter or have different lines for the dairy and dairy-free products, it’s expected to have a higher price.

If you aren’t sure which brand to choose, you can always check vegan chocolate brands online. And, if you can’t find good vegan chocolate in the local supermarkets or health food stores, you can buy online. It’s because there are many well-known vegan brands that sell their products online even if they are not sold in your city or country. In this way, you will be sure you have bought the best vegan chocolate on the market without worrying about its quality and/or ingredients.